According to Omdia, Apple is gearing up to introduce the next-generation MacBook Pro models with OLED displays as soon as 2026. Apple started using OLED displays with the original Apple Watch that was launched in April 2025. Almost three years later, Apple introduced the dramatically redesigned iPhone X which featured OLED displays for the first time on Apple’s smartphone offerings. Just recently, Apple introduced its breakthrough iPad Pro, featuring tandem OLED displays, which are the most advanced displays on any mobile device in the market.
OLED displays are the next big thing for display technology since they offer several advanced features that improve brightness, contrast ratios with deeper blacks and brighter highlights, efficiency, and color accuracy since each pixel on the display is individually lit, removing the need for a backlighting system.
Currently, both the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models feature mini-LED displays, which Apple markets them as “Liquid Retina XDR display”. Although the contrast ratios on those types of displays are a substantial improvement over the standard LCD panels, one issue those displays have is the “ghosting” effect, where brighter objects or text would appear to have a “halo” effect, which would be especially noticeable in darker backgrounds. Thankfully, the adoption of tandem OLED displays would remedy this issue. Additionally, those displays would theoretically refresh as low as 10Hz, which will save battery life overall for those laptops. Just like with the new iPad Pro, Apple will market those displays on the upcoming laptops as “Ultra Retina XDR display.”
So what’s next for Apple’s roadmap for products with OLED displays? Recent sources indicate that Apple might release both an upcoming iPad mini and iPad Air with OLED displays as early as 2026. It will take a couple of years for OLED displays to make it to Apple’s more mainstream offerings as OLED displays will be easier to produce and thus less expensive to manufacture.
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